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Netflix killing public APIs used by third-party developers

Pretty much every new piece of technology in your home can access Netflix. But when the video service started, in addition to mailing discs to customers, it was also providing developers with an open API. It’s still shipping DVDs, but those APIs are on their way out.

Today the company is announcing that it’s killing its open API program on November 14. On that day, all calls to the Netflix system will return a 404 error. Most developers are using the API to search the Netflix database and access user queues. But, as the company has grown, it’s also wanted more control over the Netflix experience. Both on devices and how it’s access via third parties.

This should be no surprise. TechCrunch reports that last year Netflix stopped issuing new APIs to developers.

Here is the email Netflix sent to developers using the API:

Netflix API Developers,
As Netflix continues to grow internationally, the emphasis of our engineering efforts is to satisfy a growing member base and a growing number of devices. To better focus our efforts and to align them with the needs of our global member base, we will be retiring the public API program. Effective on November 14, 2014, public API developers will no longer be able to access Netflix content. All requests to the public API will return 404 errors.
Thank you to for participating in the ecosystem throughout the years.
Daniel Jacobson
VP of Edge Engineering